{"id":7286,"date":"2026-10-31T05:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7286"},"modified":"2026-10-31T05:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:59:16","slug":"vikki-vansickle-the-mystic-and-the-missing-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/vikki-vansickle-the-mystic-and-the-missing-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikki VanSickle: The Mystic and the Missing Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Vikki VanSickle has had a long career as a children\u2019s author (and bookseller), and this is her first foray into the world of adult mystery writing.\u00a0 As I read the book I was thinking \u201cthis is kind of like a grown up version of Nancy Drew,\u201d and after reading VanSickle\u2019s biography, it makes sense. The main character, Drew Benson, has inherited her Aunt Hannah\u2019s metaphysical shop, as well as the building it was housed in, which includes an apartment.\u00a0 Like many another cozy heroine, Drew has returned back home to find herself after a mainly unsatisfying job in the city.<\/p>\n

As the book opens, an old classmate, Nick, comes into her empty shop, telling her that he\u2019s a reporter, looking into the very cold case of a long missing fellow classmate, Ginny.\u00a0 The 20th anniversary of Ginny\u2019s disappearance is coming up and he\u2019s wanting to do some investigating.\u00a0 He starts with Drew because her Aunt Hannah had been involved in the case, working with the police using her psychic abilities.\u00a0 Because Ginny was never found Hannah had become something of a town pariah, and Drew\u2019s parents drew her away from her beloved aunt.<\/p>\n

Nick asks Drew to look into her aunt\u2019s old journals to see if she can find anything resembling a lead.\u00a0 She\u2019s reluctant to help him, but she does drag the journals out.\u00a0 She finds a clue and she decides to accompany Nick as they begin their own investigation of the disappearance.\u00a0 For Drew, it turns out that looking for Ginny involves her long unused psychic ability of getting a \u201cglimmer\u201d when she holds an object belonging to someone.\u00a0 She proves it to herself and Nick by holding an old key chain of his and making Nick a believer in her ability when she reveals what she\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n

While this may be a young adult type set up (as well as a typically cozy one), the emotions in the book are more adult.\u00a0 Drew is not only trying to fit into her old hometown, she\u2019s coming to terms with her aunt\u2019s memory, her own mother, old neighbors, and old boyfriends.\u00a0 The store is doing poorly as well, so one of Drew\u2019s objectives is figuring out if she even wants to stay in town, or does she instead want to sell the valuable property her aunt has left her?<\/p>\n

The mystery surrounding the missing girl takes some very believable emotional turns as Nick and Drew continue to turn over (metaphorical) rocks to see what they can discover.\u00a0 Drew is also coming \u201cout of the closet\u201d as she comes to terms with her psychic abilities.\u00a0 I am a sucker for any book with a tarot card reader or any kind of psychic element, so this book was literal catnip to this reader.<\/p>\n

VanSikkle is an extremely adept and compelling storyteller, and she\u2019s created characters that stay with you long after you\u2019ve turned the last page.\u00a0 I loved Drew\u2019s journey in this novel, and if the resolution to the mystery was slightly predictable, I didn\u2019t care, as I enjoyed the read so much. Often writers who turn from young adult to adult writing already have a huge advantage: they know how to tell a fast paced story that\u2019s well structured and well written.\u00a0 VanSikkle is also an example of how cozies can change and expand \u2013 she\u2019s pushing the envelope a bit.\u00a0 Not so much she\u2019ll alienate older readers, but she\u2019s drawing younger readers into the fold as well.\u00a0 This was a sterling effort.\u00a0 — Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vikki VanSickle has had a long career as a children\u2019s author (and bookseller), and this is her first foray into the world of adult mystery writing.\u00a0 As I read the book I was thinking \u201cthis is kind of like a grown up version of Nancy Drew,\u201d and after reading VanSickle\u2019s biography, it makes sense. The … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[328,100,997,1276,2184,2643,2642],"class_list":["post-7286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-cozy","tag-minotaur-books","tag-psychics","tag-robin-agnew","tag-tarot-cards","tag-the-mystic-and-the-missing-girl","tag-vikki-vansickle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7288,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7286\/revisions\/7288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}